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Editorial

We are pleased to announce the launch of Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, an open access, peer-reviewed journal that will encompass all aspects of rare diseases
and orphan drugs. The focus will be on review articles, but the journal will consider
all contributions that are scientifically sound and within its scope.

We wish to express our gratitude to the many colleagues who have agreed to serve as
section editors for their specialties. To a considerable extent, the quality of the
journal will depend on their commitment. The journal's editorial office is established
at the Orphanet headquarters in Paris and supported by several major institutions
including INSERM, the French Ministry of Health and the European Commission (DG Public
Health and Consumer Protection).

Traditionally, readers pay to access articles, either through subscriptions or by
paying a fee each time they download an article. Escalating costs of journal subscriptions
have resulted in libraries subscribing to fewer journals and the range of articles
available to readers is therefore increasingly limited. Although traditional journals
publish authors' work for free (unless there are page or colour charges), there are
limits on how many people can read, use and cite these articles given the requirement
to pay for access.

Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases' open access policy changes the way in which articles are published. First, all articles
become freely and universally accessible online, and so an author's work can be read
by anyone at no cost. Second, the authors hold copyright for their work and grant
anyone the right to reproduce and disseminate the article, provided that it is correctly
cited and no errors are introduced. Third, the results of publicly funded research
will be accessible to all taxpayers and not just those with access to a library with
a subscription. As such, open access holds the potential to increase public interest
in, and support of, research. Fourth, a country's economic strength will not influence
its researchers' ability to access articles because readers in resource-poor countries
(and institutions) will be able to access the same material as wealthier ones (access
to the internet being the only requirement).

Article-processing charges will enable Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases to serve the scientific community with this open access forum. We hope you will support
this major advance by submitting articles to our journal. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases will usually levy an article-processing charge for manuscripts accepted after peer
review (payable on acceptance), but will cover the cost of publication for invited
review articles. Many institutions [1] and research funders [2] will cover article-processing charges for their researchers.

Please submit your work to Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases [3]. Help us to contribute to increasing knowledge on rare diseases for the benefit of
the patients and their families and to assist professionals and researchers working
in the field.